In . The man he Killed. by Thomas Hardy, Hardy writes about an infantry
soldier who has shot a man who was his enemy but if he had met him
anywhere else he would have been friends with him. Hardy uses the poem as
running commentary of the soldier.s thoughts as he is thinking about what he
has just done and he is trying to justify his actions to himself. Hardy presents
the image of death in this poem as being a job that the soldier had to do. He
didn.t know this man who could have been just like him, but he will never
know because he had to shoot him because it was his job his order that he
had to carry out. Hardy is trying to say that war changes everything. It
changes your judgement and changes your way of thinking. When the
circumstances change so does your whole way of thinking and that soldier
then didn.t think twice about taking the man.s life but if this wasn.t war he
would have never dreamed of it. This poem presents death as being just a
normal part if war and that with war comes death of normal people like
yourself.
In .The Eagle. by Alfred Tennyson the death is that of the eagles prey. This
poem uses many images of power and superiority to describe the eagle.
Alliteration is used in the first line to emphasise the importance and the
harshness of the words. Metaphors are used to describe the view that the
eagle has from where it is hovering. This shows how far up the eagle is and
how it seems that the eagle has power over its victims that lie so far below on
the ground. The eagle is described to fall .like a thunderbolt.. This simile
shows the power and speed of the bird as it falls to earth to catch its prey.
Tennyson uses this simile to suggest that the death of the innocent and
unexpecting prey would be instant. This is because the eagle is more
powerful and more superior to the prey and can therefore easily crush and kill
the prey. Tennyson is suggesting that this is very similar to a life situation and
that you have to be aware of things more powerful than you because your life
can be taken so easily. This is how the four different poets use different ways
to present death and the reasons and explanations of death.
GCSE English/English Literature Specification A
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Candidate 2
Poets in this collection of poems present very different views of death and use
different methods to do so. Compare the ways the poets present death in four of the
following poems. Choose two poems from the first column and two poems from the
second column.
Mid-term break (Heaney) The Eagle (Tennyson)
The Field Mouse (Clarke) On My First Sonne (Jonson)
On the Train (Clarke) The Man He Killed (Hardy)
Remember to compare:
• The deaths in the poems
• How the poets present death, by the ways they write about it.
Candidate 2
Mid term Break (Heaney)
On the Train (Clarke)
The Eagle(Tennyson)
On my First Sonne (Jonson)
These are the four poems that I am going to compare about how the poets
present death.
First .Mid Term Break. presents the death of a small child of only 4 years old
and it starts with .bells knelling to a close.. which bells knelling are thought
about in a funeral and it gives little clues along the way about death. Until line
14 in the 5th stanza you do not know that it is about a death of a family
member and until lime 21 in the 7th stanza you so not find out what killed him.
And them it comes to the most rememberal line, which stands on its own and
says .a four foot box, a foot for every year . and you find out the age of the
child and it is quite depressing.
.On the Train. is very different because it is about a mass death and a train
crash, which left a lot of mobile phones ringing and ringing. This poem was
not only about death but love for others and loved ones.
.The Eagle. is about death that was meant to be because if the mouse did not
die the eagle would die and become extinked. By this I mean that the poem is
about a eagle hunting its prey and if the eagle did not do this it would die and
the eagle would cease to exist. This poem is only two stanzas long but very
effective for such a short poem.
.On My First Sonne. was from a parent.s point of view and again it was a
childs death and the writer compares this child to his best piece .poetrie.. It is
written in one stanza and written in rhyming couplets. Also the language used
is archaic.
GCSE English/English Literature Specification A
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.Mid Term Break. and .On my First Sonne. are quite similar because the are
both about the death of a child but .Mid term Break. is written from a brother.s
point of view and .On my first Sonne. is written in a parent.s point of view.
Apart from that I think that these poems are very similar and give you a very
good feeling of death. Then we come to .On the Train. and .The Eagle. which
are two very different poems because one is about a large traincrash and one
is about a eagle hunting or stalking its prey. Although they are two very
different poems they both have two very well enhanced descriptions of death,
love and power. I think that all of these poems were very good and very well
written and thought about. But, I have to say my favourite was .the eagle.
because it was short and very effective.
GCSE English/English Literature Specification A
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Candidate 3
(a) Compare the ways Heaney presents the relationship between people and
the natural world in Digging and Death of a Naturalist.
and then
(b) What do you find similar and different in the ways the relationship
between people and the natural world is presented in any two poems from
the Pre 1914 Poetry Bank?
Candidate 3
Both poems are about a human outlook onto nature. .Death of a Naturalist. is
explaining how he lost his feelings and fondness of nature. .Digging. is
showing a human working with nature.
In both poems the narrator seems to begin as a child and then a young adult
by the end (AO3) This is obviously shown in .Death of a Naturalist. as the poet
uses phrases and words a child would use. (AO1)
The daddy frog.
School is also mentioned. I think Heaney is trying to show that because
children are so innocent and new to everything, they see no fault in anything.
(AO1)
Referring to .Death of a Naturalist., once the narrator has grown up he can.t
see why he was so fond of nature. As he doesn.t find it as attractive as he did
when he was a young boy. .when fields were rank..
In the poem .Digging. Heaney is looking up to his elders (his Dad and his
Granddad). He watches them keenly as they dig potatoes, working with
nature..My father digging. (AO1)
The narrator feels like he can never match up to his elders .But I.ve no spade
to follow men like them., showing how highly he looks up at his father.
You could also see some of this in .Death of a Naturalist.. At the beginning of
the poem when Heaney is a young boy he is amazed and looks up to the
nature for being so beautiful and clever .the fattening dots burst into nimble
swimming tadpoles.. The young boy is fascinated by the way nature works.
(AO3)
In both poems, Heaney realises that things are only so great because you
make them like that. (AO3) In .Digging. Heaney realises that he doesn.t have
to dig, like his elders to be a good person. Heaney uses his writing to be who
he wants to be, equal to what his elders do (AO3)
.The squat pen rests
GCSE English/English Literature Specification A
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I.ll dig with it.. Heaney is using a metaphor. As you obviously can.t dig with a
pen. But Heaney feels that he.s doing his bit to follow in the footsteps through
his writing.
(mention of AO2 but not explained)
In .Death of a Naturalist., he also sees that the nature isn.t so appealing to him
now he.s older. It.s almost as though he.s afraid of nature .the spawn would
clutch it. it appears that now as Heaney is older, the nature signifies danger to
him, or even violence. .were gathered there for vengeance..
The two poems have many similarities and differences. They are both about
growing up and respecting certain ways and things. (AO3). On the other hand
.Digging. is more orientated around family and finding yourself. As in .Death
of a Naturalist it shows how nature is dangerous and violent.
The Eagle, Inversnaid
Neither poems have any references to nature and people being together. But
personification is used. .The Eagle. describes the bird having .hands. also the
sea makes human movements
.with cracked hands.
.wrinkled sea beneath him crawls.
(AO2 but not linked to meaning)
Hopkins also personifies his nature, he gives a stream a title .his. .the fleece of
his foam..
Tennyson, although the eagle is living already, tries to give it human feelings
and characteristics. Also Tennyson uses a metaphor describing the eagle
with weather
.like a thunderbolt he falls.
Most children and some adults are afraid to thunder and Tennyson is trying to
show the strength and power of an eagle. (Some sense of effect here)
Hopkins feels that nature is god.s creation and he wants to protect it as much
as he can. He contrasts light and dark, delicate and heavy together.
Examiner.s comments:
AO1: Good. Lots of ideas, supported well
AO2: The problem. Little on the Heaney poems, and although methods
are listed in the last two, most of them are not linked to meaning.
AO3: Good on comparison in the Heaney poems.
